Daring the Senate on cybersecurity

The House is sending a message to the White House and Senate Democrats this week by passing a batch of cybersecurity bills aimed at preventing the digital version of a Pearl Harbor: Not on our watch.

The idea is to spur Democrats to move — giving them the choice to either bring their own stalled bill to a vote or risk standing on the wrong political side of a national security issue.

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“I’m hoping … when we pass these bills, the Senate will pass something and that will give us a chance to go to conference and accomplish something,” Texas Rep. Mac Thornberry, who led the GOP Cybersecurity Task Force last year, told POLITICO. “We can do lots of talking, but they need to pass something.”

The bills — including the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act — are expected to pass the House without a problem by Friday, giving Republicans a partisan talking point and providing them cover should cyberenemies execute attacks against American agencies or utilities.

It’s a tough spot for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and for President Barack Obama, whose aides lean toward the Senate’s comprehensive cybersecurity approach but have been unwilling to box themselves in by criticizing the House bill directly.

For now, Reid remains paralyzed by turf wars, an inability to collect the 60 votes needed to get a bill to the floor and the hangover effect from anti-piracy legislation that left many Democratic senators preternaturally afraid of crossing the Internet companies and activists behind the anti-SOPA efforts.

On CISPA, some tech and Internet firms — such as Facebook, Microsoft and IBM — support the House bill. But cyberliberties groups have taken to social media to wage a campaign to brand it as a “ cyberspying” bill that would let companies share private information on users with the federal government.

At the heart of the cyberfight in Congress is a partisan impasse over how far the government should go in requiring private companies and utilities to maintain specific cybersecurity standards.

The main House bill, written by Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), would make it easier for private companies to share information about cyberthreats with the government — including utilities that could be vulnerable to attacks. The bill doesn’t require much of the companies that participate, so the coalition supporting it includes a variety of industry players who don’t want the regulatory shackles in alternative legislation.

The primary Senate bill, written by Homeland Security Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine), would establish new cybersecurity standards and give the Homeland Security Department the power to oversee their implementation by utilities and other entities.

For now, the House will go it alone. Votes are expected Thursday on a handful of other cyberbills; the CISPA vote is slated for Friday.

The move provides cover for Republicans in the event of an attack and puts pressure on the Senate and the White House on a matter that all sides agree is vital to America’s national security interests.